Although most of the animals are gone, Gorongosa is still rich in biodiversity. The park sits at the end of the Great Rift Valley, in the trough between the Cheringoma Escarpment and the long, flat-topped Gorongosa Mountain.

The populist leader who has often infuriated U.S. officials while cutting a wide swath through world capitals was just as dominant in the frenzied campaigning leading up to his bid for re-election on Dec. 3 -- on television, barnstorming through poor barrios, leaving his supporters enthralled and his detractors enraged. One thing no one disputes is that Hugo Chavez's outsized personality commanded center stage.

The country's national flag, the posters of revolutionary leaders like Simon Bolivar and Che Guevara, the glee with which politicians and citizens alike poor abuse on Uncle Sam -- all proof that President Hugo Chavez has succeeded in stirring long-dormant strains of Venezuelan nationalism.

President Hugo Chavez is despised by many in his country for what they see as populist demagoguery and reckless policies, but that is not the case in the barrios and isolated rural hamlets of a country that remains extraordinarily poor despite its equally extraordinary wealth in oil. What poor and long marginalized Venezuelans see in Chavez are programs like free dental care, access to education and aid to the less advantaged in city and country alike.

The skycrapers of Caracas bespeak a proudly confident country reaping the rewards of one of the world's great pools of oil. The shacks within sight of the sleek glass towers, the vast new urban slums and isolated villages untouched by modern conveniences all tell another story -- of the 50 percent of Venezuelans who live below the poverty line.

They might as well live on a different planet -- or at the least, in Miami. Venezuela's well-heeled upper crust shop in American-style malls and snap up luxury boats and automobiles. They also form the hard-core base of opposition to populist President Hugo Chavez.